


The Person Falling Here is Me

by saltysarah



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Gen, Oblivious!Qui-Gon Jinn, Planet Melida | Daan (Star Wars), That's Not How The Force Works (Star Wars), The Council isn't Completely Useless
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-14 05:02:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29537232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saltysarah/pseuds/saltysarah
Summary: Qui-Gon brings Tahl back to Coruscant. However, Melida/Daan isn’t over yet, for any of them.
Relationships: Qui-Gon Jinn & Tahl (Star Wars)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 103





	The Person Falling Here is Me

**Author's Note:**

> I have to admit that nearly all my SW knowledge comes from fics that have a clear bias ʘ‿ʘ Everything I’ve learnt about Tahl points to her being the sort of person who wouldn’t look kindly on Qui-Gon for leaving Obi-Wan on Melida/Daan, and I’ve been reading a lot about Obi-Wan’s shitty childhood. This didn’t end up being as vindictive as I originally felt Qui-Gon deserved, but living well (and apart!) is also its own form of revenge.
> 
> Please note that even if I tagged the relationship, it's no longer reciprocated and only its echoes remain.

He thought she would be relieved, if not grateful. Master Che hadn’t managed to save Tahl’s sight but she was otherwise able-bodied, and the Force would continue to guide her and protect her.

He hadn’t expected this.

Tahl surged upright the moment she was aware enough to do so, her teeth bared and fingers rigid where they clenched in her robes.

“Where is the boy, Qui-Gon?” she demanded.

“What?” he returned blankly.

“Your Padawan,” Tahl grit out, “Obi-Wan. _Where is he?”_

She raged something terrible when she found out. For a moment, Qui-Gon was afeared her milky eyes would flicker gold - he didn’t know what he would’ve done if they had.

“I don’t see why it matters, the boy made his choice to stay,” Qui-Gon said with a frown, only for Tahl to swing her legs off her cot and push upright.

“Tahl, please, you’re still recovering,” he begged, catching her elbow when she wobbled, unsteady on her feet. He was not prepared for her to rip her arm from his, a vicious snarl on her usually placid face. A cold thought struck him. Was this the boy’s influence? He’d been so prone to aggressiveness, to leap before he looked, and now Tahl…

 _“Don’t._ Touch me,” she snarled, drawing herself up tall and tight. They had laughed about it previously, that they would never lose each other while cruising through the Temple crowds when they were together by simple virtue of being so much taller than the rest. Now, it seemed like she was using her height against him, pulling her Force presence in from where their edges used to lap at each other. It left him feeling off-kilter and bereft.

“That you left Obi-Wan there by himself - that you left the _Young_ by themselves - you are not the person I thought you were,” Tahl said, the Force ringing with every word that left her mouth. “If the boy is dead- that the boy could already be dead and we would never know-.” She choked on the words, clenching her eyes shut tight as her delicate mouth trembled. When she opened her eyes again, they bored into him, no matter their sightlessness.

“You don’t even have a training bond left, do you?”

Despite her words, it wasn’t a question and she clearly wasn’t expecting an answer.

Tahl nodded to herself, resolute. “You will never see me again.”

Her vow rang with utter certainty in the Force. Qui-Gon couldn’t even sum up the breath to protest. When he finally managed to blink the spots from his eyes, Tahl was long gone.

* * *

He received his Council summons with a flicker of irritation. He had expected his summons much earlier, especially since Tahl had not bothered to lower her voice for their last confrontation and the Healing Halls had reverberated with her emotion. He had tried to go by her rooms, but the first time they were locked from him, even if he could sense her presence within. The second time, Tahl’s rooms were empty.

Unsurprisingly, Mace got straight to the point.

“What happened on Melida/Daan, Master Jinn?”

He bit back an irritated sigh as he regurgitated his written report for them.

“Enough of that,” he concluded. “What of Master Tahl?”

“You are _not_ on this Council,” Plo said with startling chilliness. “You have no say as to the conclusion of this matter.”

“Concern yourself not, with Master Tahl you will,” Yoda croaked.

“There are many things this Council has never agreed on and never will agree on,” Oppo began slowly, “but in this, we are all aligned.”

“What in the Force were you thinking, leaving your Padawan there on his own?” Kit snapped, leaning forward in his seat. His tentacles appeared agitated, taut with tension and only settling in a forced state of relaxation.

Qui-Gon frowned. “I don’t see why this is a Council matter. Obi-Wan is no longer a Jedi, if he ever really was one.”

“Speak for the Council now, do you?” Yoda demanded sharply. If they were standing any closer, his grandmaster might have gone for his shins with his gimmer stick.

“By Master Tahl’s account, Padawan Kenobi acted well within his measure,” Plo said.

“And by _my_ account, he was in well over his head,” he countered.

“And was it not your duty to teach and guide him, as his Master?” Plo probed.

Qui-Gon raised his eyebrows. “He claimed the _Force_ led him to stay; he’d made his choice clear. Besides, I had Master Tahl’s health to consider.”

“Master Tahl is a veteran Master of the Jedi Order,” Plo said. “Padawan Kenobi was a _child._ ”

“Yes, as you’ve so aptly put it,” he returned.

Plo frowned, but it was Yoda who spoke.

“Explain that you will,” he ordered, tapping his gimmer stick twice.

“The boy made his choice and I made mine,” he said, lifting one shoulder.

“Resources,” Oppo said blankly.

Qui-Gon nodded. “Exactly.”

Yoda- strangely, let out a tired noise, rubbing his face with one grizzled claw. “Wish your Master was here, I do.”

That was such a bizarre sentiment. Before this, he would have said he’d gotten along with Yoda far better than Dooku ever had. In fact, he’d never really understood how his old master and _his_ master had worked, given how they barely ever spoke and when they did, it was only ever to argue.

“I think we’ve heard enough,” Mace said. “Qui-Gon Jinn, you are grounded to the Coruscant Temple, effective immediately. All of your active missions have been reassigned.”

Qui-Gon blinked abruptly. _What?_

“The Council is assigning you to the Mind Healers for the minimum duration of a month. After that, we will meet again and reassess your condition.” Mace’s eyes looked tired as they gazed at him. “I hope to all hells they find something wrong, Qui-Gon,” he said, and this was his old friend speaking, not the Head of the Jedi Order, “because if there isn’t, I don’t know what I’d do.”

“But- Master Tahl-?”

 _“Not_ that it’s any of your concern,” Plo bit out, “but she requested that we send a fully equipped Peacekeeping Force back to Melida/Daan and volunteered for the mission immediately. Master Kolar is taking the lead on that.”

“You’re sending her back there?” he demanded.

“Did you not agree that Master Tahl was a veteran Master?” Oppo returned. “Do you think so little of her, that she cannot handle herself?”

“She was still healing,” Qui-Gon grit out. “She nearly _died_ out there.”

“As Master Tahl was well aware.” If he was hoping for sympathy from Oppo, he received none. “Such was her choice and her Force-driven duty. Consider, then, that the fate you so fear for Master Tahl is one to which you have abandoned a child in your care.”

* * *

(Qui-Gon Jinn would never conduct another diplomatic mission again and eventually settled in Dantooine. Neither would he take another Padawan, nor was he permitted to. He would later learn that Tahl took the boy as her Padawan and raised him to Knighthood at the Temple of Eedit on Devaron. She was right about one thing: he never did see her again.)

**Author's Note:**

> Because this is strictly QG!pov, there was a limited amount I could express, and I sorely wanted to get Dooku involved somehow, as well as Bant and Quinlan and Obi's other crechmates...but it wasn't to be, not this time.


End file.
